16th Day: Carribean Sunday

After having a nice rest from being out the night before I decided to go to Caribbean Sunday for the last time before I left Japan for London. For me Caribbean Sunday was the best night I had out whilst I was in Tokyo and this is why I wanted to go again but it also helped that I could get in for free because I was Jamaican.

Earlier in the day I had been in contact with Haruno via Facebook and Email. I was curious to know if she would be coming to Caribbean Sunday but she wasn't. Instead she invited me to go to dinner at a Jamaican restaurant in Ebisu on the Monday. I agreed to meet her in the evening after she had finished work at Ebisu Station.

Getting to Ikebukuro from Hibarigaoka was probably the easiest compared to going to Shibuya. It took only 17mins using the the Rapid Train. I also was so familiar with the location of the club that I took a special exit out of the station that allowed me to be about 10 meters away from the club once I came out.

Once I got to the club I saw this African boy that I met the last time I went to Carribean Sunday called Muhaed. Whilst the club was quiet I started to speak to him and he told me how he and his family came to be in Japan. He was also excited about being able to go out to clubs and bars now that he had turned 20 years old. Then I remembered that in the previous week all the young people had their Seijin no Hi Ceremony.

Once it got around 01:00 I noticed that the club wasn't as packed as the last Sunday. But I guess that was to be expected since the last Sunday was a special occasion for a lot of the young people in Japan.

Later that night I-Van came to the club along with Yumiko from Helty Baddy Girls, Milo, Corn Bread, Irie Pam Pam, Lisa and Hotta Manammy. This was the first time I had seen Yumiko so was quite excited to speak to her because I was familiar with her and her dance partner Youko. I remember confirming with I-Van that she was actually Yumiko even though I knew full well that it was her.


I got a chance to speak to Yumiko and she was surprised I could speak some Japanese. I also told her that it was a pity that Youko wasn't there that night but before she could tell me why I told her it was because she was in New York. She asked me how I knew that and I told her I knew this from their blog.


This night was quite cool because there were less people in the club and so there was more space to dance. I also had the opportunity to dance with almost all the dancers there apart from Hotta Manammy because I just remembered what happened to the guy at Master Blaster the night before when he tried to dance with her!!! So I wasn't really in the mood to be embarrassed just yet in Japan.

When the song Dem Alone by Mavado was played Yumiko was very surprised when she saw me doing Japan Squads (I-Van, Helty Baddy Girls and Baboo) routine for the song. I told her that I had learned the routine from youtube!


The DJ from Asian Star was very friendly and he would always hive me a shout out on the mic. He remembered me from Party Hard Tuesday, Rockers Paradise and the last time I came to Caribbean Sunday. He would always say on the mic "Dorian don't be shy" when it came to me dancing with the girls in the club. Later that night he made an announcement informing everyone else in the club that this was my last time I would be out in Japan before I go back to London.


Once the party was winding down I wanted to take some pictures with everyone that I had met. I asked them all to take a group picture with me which they happily agreed to do.


Asian Star and I-Van both asked me when I was coming back to Japan but at the time I didn't know when I would next be back. They then wrote down their contact details and told me to contact them again in the future when I come back to Japan.


As we all left the club I went with Muhaed to Mc Donalds because I was feeling very hungry and by this time they were already serving their breakfast. Once we got in there we met up with I-Van and the other dancers. It was quite funny when they were trying to tell me that the Japanese dancer Lisa was known as the "cockey clasher". At that moment however I didn't know what they meant when they kept saying "cockey" but later I understood.

This night for me was pretty good too since by this time a lot of people were familiar with me and tried to make me feel more welcome in Japan. It was just a pity that by this time I only had a few more days before I had to go back to London.

15th Day: Master Blaster

I decided not to do anything on the 14th Day which was a Friday and just stayed at the guest house with the other guys. However I decided to go to Master Blaster at Shibuya Eggman on the Saturday.

I had not been to Eggman before and so was not quite sure where it was in Shibuya. From their website (and the flyer I had) the easiest way I for me to get there was through Yoyogi Station because I was familiar with that area since I had been there before. I walked from the station in the direction of NHK Broadcasting Studio and then I saw Eggman on the left just down some steps.

Once I got there it was pretty empty but this wasn't usual considering it was only around 00:30 and the Japanese don't get to the club until around 01:30 or 02:00. The night started off with Early Warm music which played until the club got slightly more full. Once the club was more packed they started to play more Dancehall music as opposed to the Reggae they normally play during the Early Warm session.


This particular night had a lot of dancers there and one of them was I-Van who I had seen the other night at Ragga Wagon. Once I-Van and the other dancers arrived the energy went up in the club and people were dancing and enjoying themselves a lot more. At one point the group of dancers that consisted of Corn-Bread, Milo, Bag Juice, Irie Pam Pam, Lisa and Hotta Manammy got on the stage and started to perform. Later I-Van joined them with Marie and Cha Cha from ChandeLella and performed his "Get Score" routine.


This was also the first night where I actually saw someone filming the event. They were also doing interviews with some of the people in the club.


Whilst I was in the club I was able to take a lot of pictures of everyone as well as all the dancers. It seemed that they were all putting on a show whilst they were on the dance floor. I also saw Shy-N while I was in there and went over to chat to him. However this time I did not get to speak to many of the dancers like last time at Ragga Wagon but that was cool. I just had a good time dancing with them all instead.


After the club night had finished I was hanging around near the exit and two of the girls that I had took a couple of pictures of earlier started to speak to me. One of them asked me what my t-shirt said. I was wearing one of my Superdry t-shirts and I knew that the Japanese/Chinese on it didn't make any sense. Although it was a good thing I decided to wear it that night becase it actually was a good conversation starter.


After I got talking to Chiho, Haruno and their friend Akane I realised that their English was pretty good mainly due to them studying it as well as having visited English speaking countries such as America and Jamaica. One of the girls who was named Haruno told me that she had actually studied in New York for a period of time too which I thought was pretty cool.

Once we left the club we continued to talk about where I was from. I started to talk to Haruno more and asked her if she had Facebook. I was fairly surprised when she said she did because not many Japanese people that I spoke to previously used it. She then used her iPhone to add me on there as a friend. Later they started to tell me that they had a friend who went to London to study Music. However at the time I didn't make much of it but thought it was cool that their friend went abroad to study. Chiho told me that they were going to eat and asked me if I wanted to come. I thought I might as well because I was pretty hungry after all that dancing.

We ended up going to a restaurant called Denny's which was about 5 mins walk down the road from Eggman. The restaurant was laid out ina typical American way and they also served American food along with Japanese food. Whilst we were there Akane did not speak as much as Chiho or Haruno mainly due to her English not being as good I think. We stayed in the restaurant for a little while but it seemed liked Chiho was pretty tired because she kept falling asleep.

When we left the restaurant it was daylight and I felt really tired as well. We just walked down the road from the restaurant and I was surprised to see that it was so close to the main area in Shibuya (with the pedestrian crossing) considering I walked a totally different and longer way to get to the club earlier. Chiho and Haruno went their separate ways to catch the train but Akane was getting on the same train as me. I managed to speak to Akane a little more whilst we were on the on train and it was quite funny when she was telling me about her time in England and how she used to eat Fish & Chips.

I had a really good time that night at the club and also spending time with some Japanese people that I could actually have more of a conversation with. I hope that I will be able to see them again when I next visit Japan.